Rise of the Fae (23 page)

But her discovery that he’d had a relationship with Danika threatened to ruin that. He figured the best thing to do was to try and help her understand.

He pulled his car into a vacant parking lot and stopped.

She looked out the window. “A parking lot? That’s what you wanted to show me?”

“No, smart ass. It isn’t.” He tried to keep the irritation out of his voice but man she could be a pain sometimes. Though he was starting to understand why she constantly had her defenses up.

He exited the car and she followed. The night was cool but not uncomfortable. Selene scanned the area and he walked to a one-story building with the glass front doors sitting open.

“What is this place?”

“You’ll see.” He continued through the empty entrance and down to a set of turnstiles. Dropping in a few pieces of change, he pushed the metal bar down with his hips and went through. He turned to drop in a few more coins for Selene but she jumped the turnstile instead.

“You’re not supposed to do that.”

She shrugged. “You gonna arrest me?”

He shoved the money back into his pocket. The approaching shriek of brakes against metal wheels shook the structure.

“Come on.” He laced her slender fingers in his and jogged toward the train that slowed out on the tracks.

She made for the open door of the train but he shook his head.

“Up here.” He showed her the ladder on the end of one of the cars and she smirked. He hoisted her up, getting an ample view of her perfect backside, before following her onto the roof.

The train rolled forward and they walked to the middle of the car and sat. Wind whipped her hair from side to side. She pulled a band out of her pocket and strapped her hair into a ponytail.

The smell of the cool night air made Neeman relax. It had been months since he’d ridden the train. He closed his eyes and smiled as they moved down the tracks, closer to the city center. The rhythm of the train was so familiar it felt like second nature.

“So what are we doing up here?” Selene scooted next to him.

“You wanted to know what I do for fun, so I’m showing you.”

“You ride the top of an L train for fun?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t become a vampyr by choice.” He looked out at the scenery. They passed an overgrown little league baseball field and he stared at the rusted and falling down fencing. “When I’d finally come to terms with what I’d become, I joined the Tracking Squad. It was the only thing that made me feel like I might have a purpose in this new life.”

“Okay, I get it. You’re a man with a mission.”

Neeman ran his hands through his hair. Why couldn’t she just shut up sometimes? “No. I’m not. That’s the point. Ever since I became this, work is all I had. Until Danika.”

Selene glanced at him sideways. “You don’t have to explain to me about her. It’s cool.”

“No, it’s not cool. I saw how you got when you asked me if I loved her and I’m trying to explain.”

The sudden seriousness that came over Selene’s features was something he’d never seen from her before. It made him want to reach out and touch her.

“I’m listening.”

“I didn’t know anything else but the work. Picking up humans, tracking rogue vamps, protecting Danika’s father at meetings. That was all I had until I met her. You asked if I love her. And in a way, I did. She was the first thing to really ground me in this life, to give me something other than just the job, and for that, I loved her. I hadn’t been with anyone before her except for the occasional one-nighter. It’s been that way ever since as well.”

They were coming close to their stop. If he didn’t say this now, he didn’t know that he’d ever work up the nerve again. “I’m not good at this.”

“At talking? I’ve noticed.”

“No. Yes. This.” He gestured between them. “Talking, sharing. I haven’t done it in over fifty years.”

“Even with Danika?”

“Especially with Danika. Don’t you get it yet? I hate what I am. I hate being a vampyr. Drinking from people, enslaving people, constantly craving sustenance. I hate it. How do you tell someone who was born this way that you hate that you’re like them? That you’d rather still be human.”

“I see.”

“Do you? Do you know what it’s like to worry every single day that you might kill someone? That you might turn them into someone like you and curse them with the same existence you have? To know that you’ll likely see the world end before your own life?”

She stared at him hard for a minute. “Yes. I know exactly what that’s like, only more so because of my inner demon. Were I to let her run free, I mean, really free, I can’t even fathom the kind of chaos she would set off.”

He nodded. “Maybe you do understand, but Danika never would’ve. She loves being what she is. And ultimately, it was my inability to tell her I cared for her, or how I really felt about myself and this life, that drove her away.”

“So do you? Still love her?” Selene stared at him, her eyes a mixture of hope and fear. It made his chest tighten.

“I love her as a friend. I will always care for her and her well-being. I’ll always fear for her safety, especially as your brother’s mate. But I’m not in love with her anymore.”

Selene swallowed hard. “And what about me? What do you feel for me?”

What did he feel for her? He stared at her for a long time. Her hair whipped loose from her ponytail. Her shining green eyes refused to look away.

“You? You make me feel...human again.”

She laughed. “I’m not even human.”

“Maybe not physically, but in spirit you are the embodiment of humans. You’re spontaneous and outspoken and spoiled and a pain in the—”

“Okay! I get your point.” She looked at her hands.

He lifted her chin. “But you also care about others. You could’ve left my men to die and run for it, but you didn’t. You saved them from a demon. You could have told Evan that she was right about Vampires and egged her on to go about trying to destroy the world, but you didn’t. You’re smarter than anyone gives you credit for and more loyal than just about anyone I’ve ever met. Besides your brother.”

“Most people call it being stubborn.”

“Either way. The answer is, I don’t know what I feel for you, but I know that I want to feel something for you and that’s more than I can say for any other female out there.”

She pursed her lips and nodded. “I understand that. I’ve never had feelings for a guy before. I’ve used men and used men and used men to get what I want. Sex, money, power. It’s how I was raised. I’ve never even thought of opening my heart with a guy before you. But now...” She sighed. “Somehow you crawled right inside of me and rooted yourself in my breast. I can’t seem to get you out of my head. Even though you’re stubborn, and overbearing, and bossy and won’t let me drive your car—”

“That was a very expensive car.”

“Even so... You’ve seen parts of me in these past weeks that I’ve never showed anyone. And you’re still here.”

“I’m still here.”

He stroked her cheek. The brakes of the L screeched as they slowed to a stop. He wanted to kiss her. To run his fingers down the length of her body and feel her quake beneath him as he brought her to the heights of pleasure once more.

“Come on. I want to show you something else.”

“More?”

They climbed to the edge of the train and descended the ladder.

“Yeah, one more thing.”

* * * *

Selene walked hand in hand with Neeman through the mostly barren streets. Vamps moved about here and there doing various jobs, but on a whole, the sounds of the city seemed muted by the death of so many humans. No one stared at her this time. No one called to her or chased her down. They moved out of the way and some even bowed to Neeman.

They strolled past store after closed down store.

“It’s sad,” she said. “To see capitalism gone from America.”

Neeman glanced at her. “Yes, it is. It’s not completely gone though. You were lucky that you didn’t have to watch its decline. Watching stores close or burn. Seeing vamps crying in the streets trying to understand what was happening to them. The smell of death that lingered for years. It was our job as trackers to keep the peace here in the Chicago territory.”

“Did you have to kill people?”

His shoulders hunched and he pulled his hand away, shoving them in his pockets. “Too many.”

Compassion raced through her in a way she’d never experienced. Was she starting to have real feelings for Neeman? The things he’d told her on the train seemed to be more than he’d shared with anyone before. She knew it was childish to like the fact he hadn’t shared those things with Danika, but she liked it just the same. All she’d heard about was Danika since she arrived. From Neeman. From Mason. It was nice to feel like she had something real and her own.

A bright marquee flashed up ahead. An old vamp stood inside a ticket booth. Neeman pulled out his wallet as he approached.

“Afternoon, Neeman.” The old man smiled, crinkling up his wrinkly face.

It was still strange to Selene that they called the middle of the night, noon.

“Hey, Gus.” Neeman slid the money under the gap in the glass.

Gus looked at Selene. “You finally got yourself a girl?”

Neeman chuckled. “Something like that.”

Gus slid Neeman’s change and his tickets through the gap. “Well, you treat her right. Good ones are hard to find.” Gus winked at Selene, making her smile.

“I’ll do my best,” Neeman replied. “But this one’s a handful.”

“The ones that are worth it always are.”

Neeman pulled open the door to the theater and held it for Selene.

Immediately she was hit with a feeling of nostalgia. Inside the entrance of the theater was an old fashioned candy counter and soda fountain. The aqua and red interior reminded her of when her mother used to take her out for a cream soda. Happy memories from before they’d found Mason flooded her. Memories she’d forgotten she even possessed.

“I figured you of anyone might get a kick out of this place.”

Gus shuffled out of the ticket box and hustled his hunched body behind the counter. He threw on an apron and hat and smiled up at them.

“Welcome, what can I get you?”

Happiness brightened Selene’s thoughts. “A cream soda float.”

“And for you sir?” Gus looked at Neeman.

“A root beer float.”

Gus nodded and set about getting out glasses and ice cream.

Neeman showed her over to the wall of candy dispensers and together they picked out various old candies and put them into bags. They debated over whether licorice or licorice rope was a better candy and then argued between the old-fashioned candies versus the newer sour candies. In the end, they bought some of about half the candies in the store.

Gus handed them the floats and Neeman ordered a bag of popcorn and paid.

The theater seats were empty. An old organ stood at the foot of the stage. A vamp sat at the organ, filling the theater with beautiful classic tones.

“Where do you want to sit?” Neeman asked.

“Well since it’s so packed in here, it’s hard to choose. But I guess let’s go dead center.”

She headed to the middle of the theater and took the center seat. Neeman sat next to her and they sipped their floats and munched on popcorn, listening to the music.

Beautiful red velvet curtains hung around the stage and draped the walls. Ornate gilded busts hung on the wall and a giant glimmering chandelier dangled above.

“How’d you find this place?”

“I’ve come here since the seventies. It was just about out of business by then, but I refused to let it go under.”

She looked over at him. “You own this?”

He shrugged. “Gus owns it. I just...invested in it.”

She shook her head.

“What?”

“The layers you possess know no bounds, Neeman.”

“Like an onion.”

“What?”

He laughed. “Shrek?”

She shrugged.

“Never mind. So tell me. What is the fae plane like?”

She picked popcorn kernels out of the bag one by one and popped them into her mouth. What was the other plane like?

“Worse than hell.”

“It’s beautiful in its own way. There are no vehicles. The technology is more organic. There are no such things as fashion or fast food, or television or anything that makes Earth, Earth.”

“So what did you do there?” He sucked on his straw and gulped down the rest of his root beer.

“I meditated and gathered food and took walks and sat. I did a lot of sitting.”

“So there aren’t jobs there?”

“Oh there are. I just wasn’t allowed to have one. They were too afraid I’d go crazy and start killing everyone.”

“So is your demon like Mason’s? Destruction and fire and all that?”

Selene swallowed.

“Yes,”
her inner demon roared.

“Mine likes chaos. She thrives off energy and madness.”

“So she isn’t into destroying us all?”

“No.”

“
Liar
.”

He raised an eyebrow at her.

“To be honest, it’s been so long since I’ve let her take over completely that I have no idea what she would do if I ever let her out. Chaos, sex, fighting, jealousy, those have always been vices of choice, but she’s been cooped up so long...”

“But it was her that I met the first night, wasn’t it?”

“Yes. But not completely. She has been taking over my consciousness, but my form stays mine. She can’t turn into her true form unless I let her.”

“You share the same father as Mason. He can’t control his demon side that well.”

“Yes, but I am more fae than demon.”

The music at the organ stopped and the curtains parted.

“I’m going to run to take our glasses back before the show starts,” said Neeman.

Selene handed him her glass and he headed toward the lobby. She watched him go, getting a nice view of his firm buttocks and broad shoulders.

“He’s nice to look at, isn’t he?”

Selene whipped around. Her demon roared and clawed to be let out. She tried to keep her hands from shaking, staring into the aqua blue eyes of Lorcan. She’d almost forgotten about him and her mission since he’d left her for dead pinned under the fallen ceiling in the compound. He plucked several pieces of candy from her bag and stuck one in his mouth. The sight made her swallow hard.